Take The Blindfold Off

Last night in youth we did a little excercise showing how much we need direction in our lives. I put a blindfold on a girl, and she attempted to put together a puzzle with the blindfold on. Now this wasn't a 1000 piece Thomas Kinkade puzzle. It was a 5 piece preschool level puzzle, but she couldn't get the puzzle together because she had the blindfold on. We had a few laughs about it.
But when she was given some direction by someone who could see, she could put the puzzle together, and obviously when the blindfold was removed she was able to put the puzzle together in a matter of seconds.
After we'd had some fun, I got down to the buisness of the lesson. The point was that we all need direction in our lives. And that if we don't follow the direction given to us, we may as well be walking around with a blindfold.
One of the examples given in the bible was from the book of Numbers chapters 13 and 14. This is where Moses sent 12 spies into the promised land. 10 spies came back and reported that the task was impossible. The land was a great land, but there was no way they could defeat the giants that lived there.
Joshua and Caleb had a different opinion, though. They saw the land for what it was, a PROMISED land. They looked at the abundance of the land as already being theirs. Why? Because God had promised them the land, and they trusted that God would fulfill His promise.
Now, the other 10 spies had heard God's promise. They just blinded themselves to seeing God's promise and saw instead only problems.
Too many times in life we forget God's promises. We allow ourselves to be blinded by the problems that surround us. But we've already been given the victory over our problems.
We all know that due to their lack of faith, the children of Israel was sentenced to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, but then they were given the promised land. Some cities just fell to the ground, and others they battled for. But they battled knowing they would be victorious because God had already promised them the victory.
God has also promised us victory. He has promised us peace in the midst of our storms. He has promised us love in the midst of loneliness. He has promised us joy in the midst of sorrow. And most of all he has promised us an eternal home when we leave this world.
So as Christians, we have our directions. They are spelled out in God's Word. All through His Word we find that He is trustworthy. He always kept His promises then, and He always will.
The question is, will you follow His direction or put on a blindfold and go your own way?